Author: Sasa

Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed

There are some movies in this world that mostly are for children or film buffs, and this film definitely is one of them: Lovely but rather childish story, a few somewhat racist elements and absolutely stunning visuals.

Today, I would say that there is one thing I prefer over films, which are operas. In some ways, “Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed” is an opera, because it follows certain rules (the ones of fairytales, that is), and because its looks are somewhat different from what we are used to. Personally, I found the silhouette style incredibly beautiful and the thought that they were animated as stop-motion pictures gives me the chills. It must have been so much work! (The same applies to “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, though it’s somewhat less beautifully done there.)
And oh my God, the backgrounds are SO Walther Ruttmann! They are the best and blend in perfectly with the cut-out characters.

I know that the story doesn’t have so much to offer, but perhaps that’s just because we are used to faster stories (see operas again). It’s a nice, generic “prince saves his princess” story, and whenever there was a seemingly pointless scene with random people dancing, I also enjoyed myself quite a lot. The whole thing lasts only about 60 minutes, so it’s a perfect film to watch in-between, or even better: in a film theater. The film must be so much fun with a great silent film pianist!

All in all, I would totally want to see this film again if it came in a cinema one day. It’s quite a pearl of animation (perhaps one of the first really good ones) and I think it deserves to be on Satoshi Kon’s list much more than many of the present ones. But then again, he seems to barely have watched any silents (how typical for a director really). Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton win in that department, I guess.

Shrek Forever After

The two greatest things about Lufthansa is that they have a very nice selection of well-made foods, and that you can choose your movie yourself. Sadly enough, there weren’t that many good films, but I was lucky to be able to pick out three. In the end, I wish I had seen either “Young Victoria” or this Jackie Chan film instead of “Shrek Forever After” (which ran on another flight as well), but how was I supposed to know?

I have seen the first two Shrek movies, and barely remember them at this point. I remember that he saved the princess by turning her into an ogre and in the second film it was the kingdom to be saved (or something?). I never saw the third film and heard that it was pretty bad. According to rumors, “Shrek Forever After” was another vain effort in milking the franchise, but less bad than Shrek 3. If that is the case, I think I might never complete the series, because “Shrek Forever After” was more an adventure action film rather than a comedy. It had an okayish story, a rather funny villain and it’s nice to see Shrek trying to win over Fiona again.

But that was pretty much it, there just weren’t many good jokes or interesting shorelines. I remember that Shrek used to shine as the funniest, most mature and most enjoyable of the computer animated films (now it has easily been topped by “Wall-E” and “Up” in my opinion). In comparison to Shrek’s old glory this sequel gives off a rather bland feeling. There also is not enough donkey nor the cat! I also hated how they put it the cat’s cute face surely because viewers expect it. Plus none of his character was further developed, ugh. As a Shrek fan, one should probably see all the films, and this one was actually fun to watch, but the rule “sequels are generally bad sequels” definitely applies here.

How to Train Your Dragon

Among the three film I saw on the Lufthansa airplane today, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, “Shrek Forever After” and this film, I can easily say that this one was my favorite. It touched my heart, and more than any other children’s movie ever before, it is relevant to my interests.

See, the main character of this movie is an engineer and scientist! Hiccup (epicly stupid name) is smart little boy who fails in terms of muscle power to everybody else; and muscle power is what counts when fighting the dragons. Of course, what he attempts to do (unsuccessfully at first), is to devise machines to fight the dragons more effectively. Later, he designs and constructs a tail contraption for the injured dragon he found, leading to one of the most beautiful scenes of him riding him. I found that scene so touching! Finally a children’s film that shows how technology saves the world! Or so I thought. XD Seriously, I consider this a rather good sign – a hero can just as well be somebody who is not physically strong nor cute or attractive, but gentle, sociable and sophisticated.

Unfortunately, in terms of content, this little film also has a problem. This is a spoiler, so don’t read this paragraph if you still want to see the film:
It is wonderful that Hiccup learns about the dragons and then tames them, so that they can finally coexist with humans, but did they really have to turn the dragons into pets? It has something imperialistic (to some degree), especially considering how smart the dragons are in the story. Perhaps I am overly sensitive about this point, but oh well. It’s a natural way to end the story, and so I accept it.

Luckily enough, I probably would never have seen this film if it weren’t for the airplane. I would totally want to see it again… Our children are going to have such an eclectic number of great films to choose from!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

I think Wes Anderson is a genius. He is funny, has a very distinctive style, and a very good way with characterization. Even the short film “Hotel Chevalier” seems to be oozing Wes-Anderson-ness.

In that respect, it came as quite a surprise how much I disliked “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. It’s not like the film was bad, by far not, but more like I expected more from a director whose films are acclaimed and who I know. It’s rare enough that a famous director suddenly decides to make an animated film, and when I saw this wonderfully subtly funny and well-crafted acceptance speech, I was incredibly hyped up for the film.

Little did I know how the film is going to turn out. I can’t even figure out what I precisely disliked about the film: The (relatively) unlikeable characters, the bland story or the fact that there didn’t seem to be much of a background to the story. The film failed to touch me emotionally, and didn’t have a style that I liked… All I can say is that I found the film to be solid, and rather suspenseful. Of course it’s also quite wonderful that a stop-motion film is still being made. So, perhaps somebody can enlighten me about what is actually great about the film?

Menschen am Sonntag
Germany 1929, Robert Siodmak, 74′

Originally, I was planning to go home to sleep after listening to Neil Brand’s “lecture”. He was talking about silent films in general, how he got to became a silent film pianist and what it means to him. It was an incredibly fun lecture, and a perfect advertisement for “Menschen am Sonntag”. He played a scene and started asking questions such as “Do you think they’re going to kiss now?” to give us a feeling how difficult it is to play to a film that you have never seen before. This guy’s quite a genius and I thoroughly enjoyed both his lecture and his music.

After “Menschen am Sonntag”, I am glad that I stilled my curiosity for this film, but I wouldn’t say that it’s that great. I see its merits and love how it’s even more “verismo” than everything British or Italian that I have seen so far, it was indeed what Neil Brand called the Ken Loach approach (I laughed when he mentioned that!), except that Ken Loach came after Italien realism and quite a few decades after “Menschen am Sonntag”. I don’t know much about the “Neue Sachlichkeit” and don’t know whether I would really like it or not. Something about the concept intrigues me as much as realism itself, but it depends on whether the execution would tend towards Russian realism (good) or French realism (bad).

As for the story in the film itself, I was mildly bored yet immensely intrigued by it. More than anything else, the relationships in the film are painfully realistic. It’s also interesting how the whole film is all about infidelity (since his girlfriend is not there, Erwin flirts with literally every girl around the globe; originally Wolfgang asks out girl no.1 and but ends up having a relationship with the girl no.2 plus he flirts with others), but the film never actually shows anybody committing ‘adultery’. Erwin doesn’t actually do anything in the end, and even though Wolfgang seems to plan to drop the girls right afterwards, he did not betray any of them in the first place. That’s the painful realism there, making the film both good and somewhat dreadful to watch at the same time. It was worse than “La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc”.

Afterthoughts

For every film you see, there will be 5 more films you want to see. This is especially the case for me and silent films. Just like with operas, I am pampered with live music screenings, and seriously I cannot imagine anything else. Perhaps I will wait my whole life to be able to see these films, perhaps it’s never going to happen, perhaps I will build my own personal cinema and engage some people to play… I can dream, right?

Both Pixelmatsch and 6451 have been completely overwhelmed by this film and probably can’t stand it anymore. As for myself, I rather completely different. On the one hand, I still hate the Babylon and can’t stand seeing it from the inside anymore; on the other hand, I now want to see more and more films. After watching “His Girl Friday” yesterday, I started picking up “Up” and “Everyone says I love you”. Just like Paris made me want to travel even more, the festival makes me wish I could continue watching movies like this. About 20 films in a week might sound like a lot, but how much is it compared to the myriads of things out there?
I must admit that my desire to watch silent films has become smaller right now though. As I mentioned, after the luxury of watching so many of them with live music, anything without live feels incredibly bland.

Continue reading “Stummfilmfestival, Day 9 + Afterthoughts”

Everyone says I love you

Sometimes it’s curious why I would not watch a film. In this case, it is perhaps because I haven’t really heard that many good things about it – and because it’s a musical. I am only slowly coming to like the musical genre, although I am probably always going to dislike how silly and shallow they mostly are. In music class, I had to watch “West Side Story” and “Grease” and absolutely hated them. At that time, I knew nothing about modern musical films such as “Chicago” or “Dancer in the Dark” and I never saw any of the old Hollywood musicals. As for Woody Allen’s musical, I should have known that it won’t lack depth too much.

Of course this is an ensemble film, which is probably its biggest problem. None of the characters are fleshed out, not even Woody Allen’s own, although of course he always plays a very similar type of character, the neurotic character trait overwhelming everything else. “I can’t believe it!” – “I don’t understand you anymore!” – “What are you doing?” It’s so incredibly weird when somebody else says Woody Allen’s trademark sentences, especially when it’s Edward Norton. I mean, wow, Edward Norton as the boring, sweet beau. He’s not even good-looking enough for that!

Indeed, the weirdest part about this film (besides the fact that it looks surprisingly modern and by far not as 90’s as it should for a 1996 film) are the actors. Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman (!!!) – I was so surprised and somewhat happy to see them in a Woody Allen movie. It’s very unusual for him after all. All in all, I think they are absolutely wonderful together. The story has a nice flow, it touches many typical Woody Allen topics in life such as life in New York, people telling their shrinks about their lives, the death of a family member and finally Woody Allen’s all-time favorite, the difficulty to be in a relationship when you haven’t actually gotten over somebody else. Oh yeah, sex, well there isn’t so much of it in this film, but that’s acceptable; Woody Allen is just as funny without the sex.

Now the big question is: What’s so bad about the film except that the characters in the ensemble didn’t really go into depth? Personally I had a lot of fun and even enjoyed the dancing scenes, because they were so well-made and outright funny. There is no doubt that any Woody Allen could be comparable to “Annie Hall” or “Manhattan”, but for me, it’s definitely a great film that I would definitely enjoy to see again, and if it’s just to see Julia Roberts and Woody Allen in a relationship.

Up

Some critic said that you must be heartless if your heart is not moved by “Up”. This is just so true. Tears were streaming down my face during the scene that showed Carl and Ellie aging together. It was just that beautiful and honestly I doubt that children would not be able to understand it – or would feel it to be too sad. This is how normal life is, and personally I think it’s a rather sweet way for a child to learn about the world. In fact, the sadness in “Up” that comes with the grief for a beloved person’s death is not so much of a depressing one but feels natural and acceptable because death is unavoidable. There is something extraordinarily beautiful to the grief of this old man, and refreshing to see how he deals with it. It’s a Disney movie after all, and perhaps the best ever.

Grieving over the death of a beloved person, making a child’s dream come true – all these issues in “Up” don’t sound all that complex, but it hits us to the core. Its depth lies in how incredibly human the film is, how much it tells us about ourselves. Most people are going to grow old, and “Up” gives us quite a good picture of how we see ourselves as old people. Of course “Up” was made by hip Pixar employees who probably use iPhones and barely look like 30. But most likely they also have grandparents and some of us younger people might even have seen how crushed old people are when somebody important passes away, and this makes us reflect upon ourselves. After all, it’s not that Ellie died that we feel sad, it’s because we were shown what a great relationship Carl and Ellie had together. Just from how they were sitting together in harmony in their respective chairs, we get a feeling how close they were to each other. That was what I found truly touching.

As for myself, I do not have any children’s dreams except for the Nobel prize, but I also do not have any regrets about it. This brings us to the perhaps most beautiful part of the story, when Carl read Ellie’s adventure book full of pictures of the two of together which says at the end: “Thank you for the adventure. Now go and have a new one!” She wanted him to go on and didn’t regret that her adventures in life turned out to be different from what she dreamt of. It sounds so simple yet feels so meaningful, and it was at that point that Carl was able to let go and finally open himself up to Russell.

Personally I found “Up” to be greater than “Wall-E”. Sure, “Wall-E” had a cute, happy love story and was, in general, very cute. Apart from the superficial cuteness factor though, “Up” is my perfect Disney movie. It has an engaging story, an adventure filled with drama and action, and finally characters who became friends and are absolutely hilarious and lovely in their interaction. Even more than “Wall-E” with its Japanese style cuteness and shady environmental message, I think “Up” is the kind of film that everybody would like, and by that, I include everybody I could possibly know. Or rather, let me know if there is anything that one could potentially not like about “Up”!

His Girl Friday

At first I thought I was going to die. I have to admit that I am a little bit afraid of watching screwball comedies without subtitles, and perhaps it would indeed be a great idea to re-watch the film sometimes soon. I was able to understand most of it though, and so did Loris.

In fact, we had great difficulty to find a film to watch. Mainly this is because we haven’t seen many films together yet despite knowing each other for a long time. If we watchsomething, it’d better be something good. So we were close to choosing “Dr. Strangelove” which I love and felt he would like it too, but then we would yet again see a film that one of us has watched before (the first time was “Fight Club”, the second was “Some like it hot”). I really would have wanted to re-watch “Dr. Strangelove”, but in retrospect, I am glad we decided for “His Girl Friday”: It was brilliant.

I have known the title of “His Girl Friday” for quite a long while, because it’s one of the more famous old screwball comedies. Apart from that, I had no idea what it all was about. If I had to compare it to the other Hawks film I have seen, “Bringing Up Baby”, I’d say that I like the main couple in “His Girl Friday” much more. In “Bringing Up Baby” the couple consists of a stiff man and a rebellious, crazy woman who chases the guy (the Nodame combination), whereas here, we have two people that are practically made for each other. Both very sharp and funny, with a little bit of maliciousness, they share a perverse love for their (admittedly quite shitty) job and you could see their attraction to each other in the eyes. Of course the great acting helps, plus Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell have absolutely great chemistry.

Besides wonderful storytelling and perfect characters, I admit that I especially like Hildy because she has exceptional potential for a modern woman to identify with. Hawks loves his strong women, and Hildy is even more lovely than Susan from “Bringing Up Baby”. This whole topic of a woman who cannot get away from her job, no matter how badly she talks about it, is just too intriguing. Loris thinks that marrying and having children does not suit Hildy. As for myself, I find it very understandable that a woman in a 1930’s film would want to have a family, and doubt it’ll be so different today. I cannot imagine a single film (think “All about Eve” or even “Sunset Boulevard”) in which the final happiness of a woman does not lie in a relationship with a man. Without a man, you are bound to be unhappy. It’s like an industry rule. I approve of the idea that maybe everybody’s secret dream to settle down. But I like it even more when in Hildy’s case, she ends up deciding for the excitement of life on the side of a more charismatic man.

For all these many reasons, I think “His Girl Friday” is a movie that definitely needs a re-watch, perhaps today in one year. I imagine this to be the kind of movie that I would enjoy at least as much at the second time, and am looking forward to it. At that point, it will become clear whether this could be a contender to “The Shop Around the Corner”, my current favorite screwball comedy.